By Tina Bellon
(Reuters) - British transportation technology company Gett has partnered with U.S. taxi app provider Curb in expectation of a pick-up in post-coronavirus business travel.
The partnership announced on Monday is Gett's first significant U.S. deal since the end of 2018, when it abandoned attempts to compete with Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) as a consumer ride-hail service.
Gett, which is backed by German carmaker Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p), now focuses on providing software services to about 14,000 large companies, mainly in the UK, Israel and Russia, helping to organise employee business travel and handling back-office tasks such as expense management.
The company's partnerships allow it to offer local taxi, limousine and ride-hailing services, such as Lyft, on its platform for corporate customers.
Gett's Deputy Chief Executive, Andrew Verbitsky, told Reuters that some of its corporate customers have voiced concerns over the safety of ride-hailing services, prompting the search for additional U.S. partners.
The deal with Curb, which allows customers to book licensed taxi services over an app and see upfront pricing in some markets, allows Gett to expand to 65 U.S. cities, the British company said without disclosing financial details.